Farmers who are interested in conserving valuable topsoil from wind and water runoff erosion generally leave more crop residue on the soil surface than is typically left by a conventional moldboard plow. Methods of leaving more crop residue on the soil surface include conventional tillage using a chisel plow, no till and ridge-till equipment as opposed to the conventional moldboard plow.
While increasing surface residue reduces soil erosion, many other field operations become more difficult. Most farm equipment such as planters, cultivators, fertilizer application equipment, etc. is designed to operate in fields prepared by conventional moldboard plow tillage. Such types of equipment have difficulty handling the additional crop residue left to conserve the valuable topsoil, especially in high-yield midwestern corn and soybean farming
Corn planters used in a field with even moderate amounts of surface residue do not work properly and cause poor seed placement, germination and ultimately reduce yield and profit. The crop residue "hairpins" around the planter parts, lifts the planter, and interferes with banding of insecticides, herbicides, etc.
The above-described problems with residue have resulted in the use of various types of "row cleaning devices". Row cleaning devices mount in front of the planter to clean the residue out of the path of the planter, cultivator, fertilizer applicator or other devices.
In some applications such as no-till, ridge-till, or even conventional tillage, there are cases when it is advantageous to be able to lift the row cleaning device, residue removal system, etc. to a secondary higher elevation. The need to raise the row cleaning device is common in ridge-tilled fields where the headlands at each end of the field are not ridged (so tractors, combines and trucks do not need to cross ridges) and requires a different height setting of the tool.
As farms become larger and consist of many scattered noncontiguous fields, equipment becomes larger (more rows per implement) and there is a need for a means of quickly, simply and accurately raising and lowering often a very large number of farming tools drawn by the tractor.
Some tools on the market provide a relatively fine threaded or multi-hole pinned height adjustment to set the depth of soil engagement for the tool while working. Multi-row machines often have 12, 16, 24 or more separate row units on a single tool bar. Raising and lowering the tools for these machines can become a significant efficiency factor in the overall operation of a farm. The loss of time in raising and lowering tools accumulates and becomes extremely significant in the relatively short available planting and harvesting seasons.
For example, if each tool on a 16-row planter is raised to do the headlands and then lowered to do the ridges on a neighboring field, and it takes an average of 2 minutes per row to get to the adjustment and either raise or lower it using the threaded or pinned fine depth adjustment, that means 32 minutes will be spent raising the 16 units to do the headlands and 32 minutes to lower the same 16 units.
This is a total of 1 hour and 4 minutes adjusting tool height every time the planter operator goes from one field to another. On a larger planter the time loss is even greater. During the planting season this time is critical. A 16 row planter at 6 mph could plant over 26 acres in the time spent adjusting the tool height.
Further, raising and lowering the height of multi-row machines is also time-consuming, tedious and repetitive. Repetitive operations are often the cause of farm accidents. For example, requiring an operator to repeatedly place himself beneath a raised implement to repin a multi-pinned height adjustment may increase the likelihood of accident and injury.
Further, the tools must be manually elevated and shifted to align holes to insert pins for desired height selection The pins are prone to being lost, whereupon the tool cannot be fixed at the desired height.
The process of readjusting the height of 16 row units from a given depth setting to another setting and then back to the original setting is likely to result in misadjustment of the tool a certain percentage of the time. Misadjustment may cause poor tool performance, row plugging, and further delays.